Dan Barber Blames Tomato Blight on Home Gardeners

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In a Times op-ed yesterday about this season’s late blight on tomatoes, Dan Barber points out that it wasn’t just a wet, cool summer that created perfect conditions for the fungus, but more gardeners. “[T]he explosion of home gardeners — the very people most conscious of buying local food and opting out of the conventional-food chain — has paradoxically set the stage for the worst local tomato harvest in memory,” writes Barber. One solution: Start your garden with local plants. “A tomato plant that travels 2,000 miles is no different from a tomato that has traveled 2,000 miles to your plate, ” he admonishes.